Roon is not good for grouped Airplay Speakers

Audio Gear Talk Airplay
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve consistently faced syncing issues with my AirPlay speakers when using Roon. Initially, I had a mix of HomePods and other AirPlay speakers, but they were always out of sync. Thinking that using all HomePods would solve this, I made the switch, but the problem persists. Interestingly, this issue doesn’t occur when I stream directly from my iPhone via AirPlay 2 on Apple Music or Qobuz. Using ARC at home works well as it seems to use the same AirPlay 2 path from my iPhone, but this feels like a workaround, though it’s in stereo mode, which is a plus. Listening to Keith Jarrett in Roon, for example, feels like a nightmare. The music sounds like it’s coming from an untuned piano.

I’m puzzled why this latency or gap happens only with Roon (not ARC). I’ve tried DSP, but it’s confusing and ineffective for grouped AirPlay speakers. Does it really work for grouped AirPlay speakers?

I understand the recommendations for RAAT over AirPlay, but HomePods offer good value, and simplicity matters. While I love Roon’s interface, its poor integration with AirPlay is disappointing. I believe many would appreciate better AirPlay support in Roon.

For now, ARC is a decent alternative, surpassing other streaming apps, but why can’t Roon offer the same?

Thanks!

2

I have the same problem. Has raised it in a separate post, but no feedback.
Is this a general Roon/Airplay problem?
Jesper

3

I’ve had Apple Airplay problems too.
Today Roon stopped playing to my HomePod, also won’t play to WiiM’s as AirPlay devices.

4

You are not alone. Your Roon installation probably updated to Roon 1407. There’s this:

Roon Build 1400+ : Issues with Airplay Connection to Certain Endpoints [Ticket In, Fix Forthcoming] - Support - Roon Labs Community

I’m astonished that Roon still offers no mechanism to fallback to a prior version when one of their updates borks user systems.

5

Arggh thanks, I’ve had Roon switched off for a while, and it updated today after I booted it up again.
I saw the Apple TV comment, but that seemed different to my issue.
I canceled my Roon (again) after the probs I had today, I figured that I really needed to change everything to Roon Ready devices to make it work.

6

You could invest in a WiiM pro (or similar streaming device) that is Roon ready and use these to hook up to your devices.

7

Yeah, that’s my plan. Commit to Roon Ready everywhere.

8

I am using a Wiim Pro Plus as a Roon Endpoint using Roon RAAT Protocol. The Wiim then connects to my Airplay 2 devices (Sonos and AirportExpress for my Legacy Speakers/Stereos).
This works fine since the Wiim handles the Airplay devices while Roon was not able to do this since it is dropping out with long pauses between tracks and generally became slow when navigating.
Last week, after the latest Roon updates, i tried Roon with Airplay 2 devices directly with the same result. This is of course an expensive work around since i mainly use the Wiim to play music from my Roon Server to my Airplay Endpoints around the house.

The disadvantage is of course that i need to use two different apps , Roon for the music playing and Wiim for the endpoints including volume change on individual endpoints.